


Don't

by tsukikomew



Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-07
Updated: 2017-04-07
Packaged: 2018-10-16 02:02:42
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,749
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10561540
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tsukikomew/pseuds/tsukikomew
Summary: Post S5--Felicity unintentionally angers Oliver when she called him by a nickname.





	

“Oliver?” Felicity calls. Oliver responds quickly, taking the stairs and staring at the mess in the loft. Felicity is cooking again and he’s not sure he can take it. The smell of burning food always makes him slightly panicky.

 

“Felicity?”

 

“Will you cook dinner?” she asks quietly. She looks at the ground in embarrassment and he sighs. He pulls her in for a hug and surveys the damage. 

 

“Of course,” he whispers. “Is that...egg on the ceiling?”

 

“No...it’s cheese,” she murmurs. “I’m not sure how that happened.”

 

“I’ll fix it.”

 

“Thanks,” she murmurs. “I swear I’ll get better at this.”

 

“If you don’t, that’s okay. I like cooking for you.”

 

She snuggles deeper for a second and Oliver just relishes in this. He had started to think they’d never find their way back to each other. After everything with William and then Malone, he thought they were done forever. Somehow when they started talking, things worked out. After Prometheus, they had gotten here. Together in the loft.

 

“Thea called earlier,” she starts as he moves to start cleaning up her mess. “She told me to, ‘tell Ollie to remember to read the notes I left because Ollie will forget’ and then...she said ‘Ollie--”

 

“Don’t.”

 

“Don’t what?”

 

“Don’t call me that,” he says quietly.

 

“Don’t call you what?” she asks confused. “Ollie?”

 

“Don’t call me that!” he says loudly.

 

“Why are you upset?”

 

“I’m not just don’t call me that...I’m not hungry. I’ll clean up later.”

 

Quick as anything Oliver vanishes from in front of her. Somehow she’s left standing in front a mess in the kitchen and the door slam echoes through the loft. She can’t help but murmur…

 

“What just happened?”

* * *

 

He doesn’t come for hours. Felicity cleans the kitchen and even hauls out a ladder so she can clean the ceiling. The cheese is sticky and disgusting but all she’s thinking about is the ladder and just how easy it would be to fall. Oliver’s not here and that worries her.

 

She puts calls out to their friends but no one’s seen him. He’s not in the bunker. He’s not with John or Thea or the recruits. He’s not at City Hall. No one has seen him and that worries her. The last time no one knew where he was...no she can’t think about those six days. She can’t. 

 

Instead she tries to stay busy. She cleans and straightens. She channel surfs. She does a load of laundry. She remakes their bed, smoothing the sheets gently. She picks up Oliver’s journal and lays it on his bedside table. She slips a new pen on top of it. It is one place she will never look. She’ll hack anything but she won’t peek in his journal. It’s the place she respects most of all. Oliver’s thoughts and feelings are his own and he will share them when he’s ready.

 

She updates the tv screensaver with pictures of them and their friends so the photos are always nearby. She loves combing through the old albums Thea has let her see. She likes to keep things fresh and honor those they’ve lost. Always close to their hearts. It also reminds her she has a big family now.

 

When Oliver doesn’t come home that night, she panics. With shaking hands she calls John. Her heart thuds in her ears when he answers and tells her Oliver is with him. He showed up late, drunk and John had texted her. She hangs up and looks at her messages. There in black and white, a text from John. How could she have missed it?

 

She doesn’t cry typically. She tries not to. After the year with Ra’s, she had tried not to. She hadn’t even cried when Oliver and her broke up. She just packed it in a box and didn’t let it out. When Billy died, she cried once because she failed him. She got upset when Oliver came back from his time with Prometheus but she kept it in. Somehow she couldn’t this time. This hurt and her heart felt raw. 

 

Why couldn’t this be easy? Why couldn’t they just be happy? Why was the universe always causing trouble and making this so painful?

 

She ends up sitting in front of the television bundled up in a blanket in the middle of the summer, watching Dr. Who. She really couldn’t say what’s happening because she just feels numb. She’s not devastated or broken, she’s just tired. She’s tired of fighting every step of their relationship when nothing ever goes right. She’s disheartened. Why can’t he just tell her what he feels? Why does she have to guess about everything?

She wakes up in bed. She’s still in her pjs but she’s under the covers with her head on a pillow. The light is dim but she knows what that means. Cracking her left eye open, she takes in Oliver. He’s scribbling away in his journal with the light casting shadows over them. He’s in sweats and if she wasn’t so upset, she’d use the word delicious. He always looks good like that.

* * *

 

The light slips over his burned tattoo like a caress and she itches to touch it again. For awhile he wore a shirt, even to bed. He seemed ashamed of it somehow but they got through that. They have gotten through so much together. It was only when he came home and found her burning the grey sleep shirt that he finally caved. 

 

“I’m sorry,” he says. He keeps writing but she opens both eyes to watch him. “I’m sorry I snapped at you.”

 

“Why Oliver?”

 

“Because you called me Ollie,” he says simply. “Please don’t call me that.”

 

“I was just quoting Thea,” she says defensively.

 

“I know. It’s just...I don’t want you to call me that.”

 

“Why not? A lot of people call you that. Barry calls you that.”

 

Oliver sighs and puts down his journal before rolling to his side to watch her and consider his answer. They are mirror images to each other, on their sides, propped up with one arm. There is too much space between them sometimes.

 

“Do you know when Barry started calling me Ollie?”

 

“Um when he met us?” 

 

“No. When he was under the influence of the mood-ring villain.”

 

“Rainbow Raider aka Prism?”

 

“Sure whatever. Point is, he used it to dig at me. To remind me of how I wasn’t enough. He used it to remind me that I’m always one step away from the person I was.”

 

“Oliver…”

 

“I don’t think he means it now. I just...don’t like it. It’s too ingrained in Thea and Sara. But Laurel...Tommy...they called me that too. It’s a reminder...not a nickname.”

 

“I didn’t mean…”

 

“I know you didn’t,” he begins. “It’s just...remember when I told you that you were the first person I saw as a person when I got back?”

 

“Yes.”

 

“Well I left something out.”

 

“You usually do.”

 

“You were the first person to really treat me as me...as who I am now. Dig did too but I think he saw me as equal parts Ollie and equal parts monster. It wasn’t until later that we found an understanding.”

 

“So when I call you that…?”

 

“I feel like you’re seeing that man. I feel like you’re saying I’m acting like that and I never want you to feel that again. I don’t want to hurt you like I did before because you are one of the most important things to me.”

 

“I won’t call you that even in quotes,” Felicity says. “This is really important to you. I want you to tell me these things.”

 

“I’m sorry I hurt you last night,” he murmurs. “I meant to come home to you and explain but then I started drinking and...I didn’t want to come home to you acting like I would have back then. So I crashed at John’s.”

 

“Oliver I love you. I love every part of you. That part of you…’Ollie’ is a part of you now. That part of you kept you alive on that island. You are a different man now but I don’t want you to hide those parts from me.”

 

“I’m scared that I’m going to ruin this again,” he admits. “I’m scared I’m going to screw up and hurt you again.”

 

“I think everyone is always scared of things like that,” she says. “I love you so much and I want our lives to go smoothly. They won’t because it’s us but I want it.”

 

She kisses him gently and lets him pull her onto him. It’s a familiar position for them. Oliver tends to dominate in bed but sometimes when he’s feeling softer, more vulnerable he pulls her to him like this. 

 

When they are like this the world just melts away. His lips are warm on her body. She gasps when he finds a sensitive spot on her neck. He has some form of guidance system. He can make her sigh with only a light touch. 

 

One of her favorite things is kissing Oliver. Sometimes on the street he just pulls her into one. In the middle of the crazy world, he makes it all stop. Just for a moment. For a moment the world drops away and it’s just him and her. Together.

 

Sometimes they stay like this for a long time. It is a gentle slide that can turn feverish. It’s something that has surprised her again and again. Oliver Queen likes to make-out. He likes to take his time and just drive her a little crazy. 

 

“Did I mention I like the cupcakes?” he murmurs against her lips. 

 

“Cupcakes?” she asks, mind whirling.

 

“You have a chocolate one right here,” he says as his hand grasps her breast. “And a vanilla one right…”

 

She moans at the contact and gasps when his fingers begin to move. There is a level of friction she was unprepared for as he slips his fingers against the outside of her pjs. 

 

Later when she’s naked and he’s above her, sweat dripping down onto her heated body, she talks.

 

“Can I just say your...ohhh...stamina is…”

 

“Another mark against my old self,” he says quickly. 

 

“Oliver…”

 

“Yes...like that…”

 

“Oliver…”

 

“Yes…”

 

In the middle of the night she snuggles closer to him and touches his chest gently. He tugs her closer and she whispers it against him.

 

“Oliver.”

 

“Felicity.”

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> I came up with this idea yesterday. I love the way certain characters do not use his nickname and others do. So...here we are. I wrote out a couple of scenes for the next Remarkable chapter today too so inspiration is everywhere. Check out my Twitter for other thoughts and teases. @Tsukikomew


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